Design talks move forward on Convention Center

Updated 12:08 pm, Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The $825 million expansion would increase the city’s standing as a convention destination.

The $825 million expansion would increase the city’s standing as a convention destination.

Photo: BOB OWEN, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Design talks move forward on Convention Center

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As the design phase moves forward on the Convention Center expansion, designers have proposed increasing the size of a new ballroom and planned exhibit space before construction begins next year, city officials said Tuesday.

Before City Council launched the $325 million project last month, the city outlined its minimum expectations for the facility's east end, including adding at least 300,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space to the current 200,000 square feet. City officials also wanted the Convention Center to house a new 50,000-square-foot to 80,000-square foot exhibit ballroom.

However, designers have gone “above and beyond” what Michael Sawaya expected.

Sawaya heads the city's Convention, Sports and Entertainment Facilities department and said possible changes to the initial design would retain the 500,000 square feet of exhibit space requirement and increase the ballroom's size to about 90,000 square feet.

Under a contract not to exceed $304.8 million, Hunt-Zachry Joint Venture will design and build the Convention Center expansion, the largest capital project in San Antonio's history. Construction is set to begin next September and should be complete in 2016.

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Stressing the design is still conceptual, Sawaya presented the designers' recommendations to city and hospitality industry leaders at the annual business meeting of the Convention & Visitors Bureau Tuesday.

“We're just starting the design process now,” he said in an interview.

“There's some more data gathering that needs to take place, but for the most part, what (Hunt-Zachry is) proposing fit with what we are as well,” Sawaya said.

A total 684,000 square feet of new construction and 86,000 square feet of renovation will be added to the Convention Center. Once finished, the augmented exhibit space would bump the Convention Center's ranking from 22nd to ninth in the U.S. among similar convention designs, according to Convention, Sports & Leisure International, a firm that assisted the city's facilities development study.

In September, the council authorized a five-year contract with Hunt-Zachry following a controversial bidding process.

Earlier this month, the city's Ethics Review Board ruled Pat DiGiovanni, the deputy city manager, violated the city's ethics code for his part in awarding the Convention Center expansion contract to Hunt-Zachry. The board acted after the Express-News reported DiGiovanni failed to disclose he had accepted a job at a nonprofit organization whose board includes David Zachry.

Zachry serves as CEO of Zachry Corp., one of the companies included in the Hunt-Zachry partnership.

Express-News archives contributed to this report.

nmorton@express-news.net

Correction: Pat DiGiovanni serves as San Antonio’s deputy city manager, and the city’s Ethics Review Board did not convene to discuss any violation of the city’s ethics code by David Zachry, CEO of Zachry Corp. A story on Wednesday’s page C2 and on mySA.com incorrectly described DiGiovanni’s job status and what the ethics board considered.